How Appealing



Thursday, June 3, 2021

“Senate confirms Valerie Stanfill as Maine’s chief justice; Justice Stanfill will succeed former Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, who stepped down last year to become dean of the University of Maine School of Law”: Kevin Miller of The Portland Press Herald has this report.

Posted at 9:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court speaks loudly to critics in Thursday ruling. Here’s what justices are saying. The decision in Van Buren v. United States must have been another disappointment for Dems and advocates who are demanding raw court packing.” Law professor Jonathan Turley has this essay online at Fox News.

Posted at 8:53 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court Limits Reach of Federal Law on Computer Crime; In a 6-to-3 decision featuring unusual alliances, the court said it was wary of interpreting the law to allow commonplace conduct to be prosecuted”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Robert Barnes of The Washington Post reports that “Supreme Court narrows anti-hacking law, worries about criminalizing common behavior.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Unusual Supreme Court majority narrows scope of computer anti-hacking law.”

Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Supreme Court Draws Limit to Anti-Hacking Law; A 6-3 decision aligns three Trump nominees with three liberal justices.”

Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Trump appointees on Supreme Court side with liberal wing in hacking case.”

Jessica Gresko of The Associated Press reports that “Supreme Court limits prosecutors’ use of anti-hacking law.”

Andrew Chung of Reuters reports that “U.S. Supreme Court restricts scope of computer fraud law.”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “Supreme Court Narrows Scope of U.S. Computer-Hacking Law.”

Pete Williams of NBC News reports that “Supreme Court limits reach of computer crime law; The court said the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act does not cover people who ‘have improper motives for obtaining the information that is otherwise available to them.’

Brian Fung, Ariane de Vogue, and Devan Cole of CNN report that “Supreme Court sides with police officer who improperly searched license plate database.”

Tyler Olson of Fox News reports that “Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh side with liberal Supreme Court justices in computer fraud case; Barrett warned government reading of law could ‘criminalize’ conduct like ’embellishing an online-dating profile.’

Eric Geller and Josh Gerstein of Politico report that “Supreme Court narrows scope of sweeping cybercrime law; The justices agreed with a broad range of critics that prosecutors had been misusing the 35-year-old law.”

Chris Mills Rodrigo of The Hill reports that “Supreme Court narrows cybercrime law.”

And Barbara Leonard and Jack Rodgers of Courthouse News Service report that “Cop’s Nosing Around of Database Isn’t Computer Crime, High Court Rules; The court was divided Thursday on whether a police sergeant violated the law, as well as department policy, when he accessed license plate information as part of a bribe.”

Posted at 8:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Incredible Illinois Gerrymander: Democrats are even rigging state Supreme Court districts.” This editorial will appear in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Posted at 8:26 PM by Howard Bashman



“Chances grow that Supreme Court will take up Maine’s ban on religious school funding”: Matthew Stone of The Bangor Daily News has an article that begins, “A new federal court opinion in Vermont improves the chances that a Maine case challenging the state’s ban on public funding for religious schools could end up before the nation’s highest court, according to a constitutional law scholar.”

Posted at 8:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Why Would We Expect Philosopher-Judges? Might the persistence of bad judges call into doubt the thesis that we should rely on good ones?” Greg Weiner has this post at the “Law & Liberty” blog.

Posted at 1:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court revives Gophers football player lawsuit, citing possible sex discrimination in gang-rape punishments”: Josh Verges of The Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minnesota has this report.

And Rochelle Olson of The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that “Gopher football players’ gender discrimination lawsuit against the University of Minnesota can go forward; Federal Appeals Court revives claim in 2016 sex assault investigation.”

You can access Tuesday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit at this link.

Posted at 11:26 AM by Howard Bashman



“Federal judge dismisses Planned Parenthood lawsuit against City of Lubbock”: Gabriel Monte of The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has this report.

And David Lee of Courthouse News Service reports that “Federal Judge Tosses Challenge to West Texas City’s Abortion Ban; Lubbock residents voted to make it a ‘sanctuary city for the unborn’ last month, a year after the City Council rejected an abortion ban over constitutionality concerns.”

Update: At “PrawfsBlawg,” Howard Wasserman has a post titled “No standing when abortion law privately enforced.” He also posted Tuesday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas at this link.

Posted at 11:10 AM by Howard Bashman



“A year after his COVID-19 recovery, Above the Law founder David Lat makes some big changes”: David Lat was Stephanie Francis Ward’s guest on this week’s new installment of ABA Journal’s “Asked & Answered” podcast.

Posted at 10:59 AM by Howard Bashman



“First Circuit Halts Wrongful Death Suit Brought by Families of Train Disaster; The 2013 train crash destroyed a large swath of a Canadian town and left 47 people dead”: David Wells of Courthouse News Service has this report on a noteworthy ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued yesterday regarding the effect on the time for appeal that a motion for reconsideration has in a case that is within a federal district court’s subject matter jurisdiction because it is related to a pending bankruptcy proceeding.

Posted at 10:48 AM by Howard Bashman



Access today’s ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in an argued case: Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered the opinion of the Court in Van Buren v. United States, No. 19-783. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. joined. You can access the oral argument via this link.

Posted at 10:11 AM by Howard Bashman